Method and apparatus for facilitating the rendering of human communication content

ABSTRACT

A device ( 200 ) that is presently rendering human communications content ( 202 ) via a corresponding human communication interface ( 203 ) will also passively wirelessly transmit information ( 103 ) regarding an existing native capability regarding also wirelessly transmitting the human communication content. Upon receiving (in response to that passive transmission) information ( 105 ) regarding an existing other device&#39;s ( 205 ) capability of also rendering that human communication content, this device can then switch ( 106 ) present rendering of the human communication content from the first device to the second device.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates generally to the rendering of human communicationcontent and more particularly to rendering in conjunction with a devicehaving wireless communications capability.

BACKGROUND

Various devices having a human communication interface are known in theart. Such interfaces often serve to facilitate the rendering of humancommunication content (which rendering comprises, for example, causingthe human communication content to be discernable to a human via atleast one human sense of perception). A representative (though notexhaustive) listing of such devices would include wireless audio and/ordata communications devices, audio and/or video playback devices, and soforth.

It is increasingly common for a given end user of such device to usetheir devices while moving from one place to another. As but oneillustrative example in this regard, a given user might begin listeningto an mp3 player that is built into their cellular telephone while attheir home. Such listening would continue when this user moves to theirautomobile and may then continue further as the user begins working attheir office.

As the end user moves from place to place, they often come withinproximity of other devices that also have a human communicationinterface that could potentially serve as a platform to render the humancommunication content being perceived by the end user at that time. Insome cases, switching the rendering of the human communication contentfrom the first device to a second device can comprise a desired event.For example, in some cases this may facilitate compliance with the law.As one illustration in this regard, it may be illegal to listen tolisten to mp3 player using both-ear headphones notwithstanding thatlistening to that same player through the automobile's speakers isallowed. In other cases, such a switch may simply represent a beneficialevent as where the second device comprises a superior playback platformfor the end user's human communication content.

Unfortunately, at present, effecting such a switch typically requiresconsiderable intervention, knowledge, and training on the part of theend user. For example, to effect a change as suggested above from an mp3player to an automobile playback system, it might be necessary to employa properly configured intermediary device such as a short-rangefrequency modulation transmitter. These and numerous other obstacles, inturn, tend to generally discourage such changes. As a result, switchingpresent rendering from one device to another often remains simply an enduser wish.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above needs are at least partially met through provision of themethod and apparatus for facilitating the rendering of humancommunication content described in the following detailed description,particularly when studied in conjunction with the drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 2 comprises a block diagram as configured in accordance withvarious embodiments of the invention.

Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures areillustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily beendrawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioningof some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative toother elements to help to improve understanding of various embodimentsof the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements thatare useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are oftennot depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of thesevarious embodiments of the present invention. It will further beappreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described ordepicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in theart will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence isnot actually required. It will also be understood that the terms andexpressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to suchterms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respectiveareas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwisebeen set forth herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally speaking, pursuant to these various embodiments, a device thatis presently rendering human communications content via a correspondinghuman communication interface will also passively wirelessly transmitinformation regarding an existing native capability regarding alsowirelessly transmitting the human communication content. Upon receiving(in response to that passive transmission) information regarding anexisting other device's capability of also rendering that humancommunication content, this device can then switch present rendering ofthe human communication content from the first device to the seconddevice.

So configured, these teachings permit, for example, audio and/or videoplayback to be switched from a first platform to another when legaland/or end user preferences are thereby better met. The passivetransmissions regarding this capability can be relatively fundamentalor, if desired, can contain considerable additional information to aidin facilitating these teachings. This information can comprise, forexample, metadata of various kinds regarding the human communicationcontent, the device itself, and/or desirable rendering attributes of thesecond device as desired.

By one approach, if desired, these teachings will also accommodatemonitoring for passive transmissions from other devices, which passivetransmissions comprise, for example, human communication interfacecontrol instructions. Such instructions might pertain, for example, tovolume settings, playback transport settings, display settings, mediaselection settings, formatting control information, and so forth. Soconfigured, a given device can then better comport its own renderingactivity with locally required and/or advised rendering stipulations.Such passive transmissions might be sourced, for example, by any of avariety of private, public, governmental, and/or commercial entities, tonote but a few.

These and other benefits may become clearer upon making a thoroughreview and study of the following detailed description. Referring now tothe drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, an illustrative process 100will be described. This process 100 may be effected, for example, by adevice having a human communication interface. Various devices may servein this regard including, but not limited to, two-way wireless audiocommunications devices, two-way wireless data communications devices,audio playback devices, video playback devices, audio/visual playbackdevices, computing platforms, and so forth. Similarly, these teachingsare compatible for use with a wide variety of human communicationinterfaces including, but not limited to, displays, audio transducers,tactile input devices, pointing devices, audio input devices, and soforth.

This process 100 provides for the provision 101 of human communicationcontent and the present rendering 102 of that human communicationcontent using the aforementioned human communication interface. Thehuman communication content itself can vary with the needs,requirements, and/or options as tend to characterize a given applicationsetting. Illustrative examples would include, but are not limited to,audio content, video content, audio/visual content, user action events,user selection events, textual user input, auditory user input, gesturaluser input (including but not limited to hand movements, arm movements,whole or partial body movements, head movements, eye movements(including gaze directionality), and so forth), and the like. Therendering step can comprise, for example, causing the humancommunication content to be discernable to a human via at least onehuman sense of perception (such as the sense of vision, the sense ofhearing, the sense of smell, the sense of touch, the sense of taste, andso forth).

While rendering this human communication content as described, thisprocess 100 then provides for passively wirelessly transmitting 103information regarding an existing first device capability regardingwirelessly transmitting the human communication content. This notion ofpassivity refers to the unilateral and non-compelling nature of thetransmission contents; that is, this message is not intended or designedto force a response or an acknowledgement by a receiving device. Soconfigured, a receiving device is free to observe, process, and/orignore the transmission and its contents. In some embodiments, thenotion of passivity may also include automatic initiation of thetransmission (without human intervention in the form of a human input)for each message. In some embodiments, a state may be selected by ahuman input to either provide for automatic initiation of suchtransmissions, or to request some form of human input; for example, analert could be given to a human operator that asks for an input to causeinitiation of the transmission.

This passive wireless transmission can comprise a one-time event perrendering activity or can be provided on a more frequent basis. Whenproviding multiple transmissions, the transmissions themselves can beirregularly offered or can be provided on a substantially periodic basis(for example, about every 0.5 seconds, every 5 seconds, every minutes,or the like). The transmission schedule can be unilaterally determinedby the device itself or can match some external guideline or standard asdesired.

The information in this transmission may comprise content that describesand/or characterizes device capabilities as correspond to the presentrendering of the human communication content. Illustrative examples ofsuch information would include, but are not limited to, metadataregarding the human communication content itself (such as, but notlimited to, metadata regarding data formatting, vocoding, compression,encryption, file size, playback requirements, playback preferences, andso forth), metadata regarding the first device itself (such as, but notlimited to, metadata regarding current power reserves, current rates ofpower consumption, available transmission modalities, availabletransmission capabilities, available outbound bandwidth, and so forth),and metadata regarding the receiving device (such as, but not limitedto, metadata regarding desired minimum playback capabilities and soforth), to note but a few salient examples.

In general, this passively transmitted information can serve to inform areceiving device regarding a present capability of the device to forwarda specific item of human communication content via another wirelesstransmission in order to facilitate a switch of playback platforms. Suchinformation can be relatively minimal (by referring essentially only,for example, to the opportunity itself) or more richly endowed (byincluding additional information that the receiving device can use, forexample, to assess the viability and/or advisability of making such aswitch).

This process 100 then provides for receiving 105, in response to havingpassively wirelessly transmitted the aforementioned information,information regarding an existing other device capability to render thehuman communication content. This response could comprise a negativeacknowledgement to indicate that a switch with respect to the renderingplatform is not possible and/or not advisable. Such a response couldalso comprise, however, a positive acknowledgement.

A positive acknowledgement can assume any of a wide variety of forms. Byone approach this step of receiving 105 information can be played outover numerous back-and-forth messages. By another approach the requisiteinformation might be provided in a single message. In either case, theinformation can be conveyed using any protocol of choice including aproprietary protocol and/or an open standard as may be presentlyavailable or offered in the future.

It is possible, of course, that the responding device may comprise aninappropriate platform notwithstanding the existence of technologicalcompatibility. For example, the device user may not with to burdendevices that are not owned and controlled by the user. In such a case,the user may not wish to permit the rendering activity to be switched toa device that is owned and/or operated by another entity. To accommodatethis concern, if desired, this step may further comprise determiningwhether the second device is authorized to render the humancommunication content.

By one approach, for example, each user may have a unique (orsubstantially unique) identifier associated with them. By this approach,each of the user's devices as correspond to these teachings can beconfigured to provide that identifier when appropriate. For example,this identifier may be included when providing the above-describedpassive transmission and/or when a device responds to that passivetransmission. So configured, for example, the device could determinewhether a responding device is authorized to render the humancommunication content, at least in part, by evaluating the useridentifier as is included with that responsive communication.

When appropriate, this process 100 then provides for switching 106present rendering of the human communication content from the presentdevice to the responding device. By one approach this step can occurautomatically. By another approach the user can be prompted to receiveconfirmation that such an action is authorized. If desired, the switchcan occur without perceptible embellishment. By another approach,however, the switch can be accompanied by a preliminary, concurrent,and/or subsequent user-perceivable signal regarding the switch. Thisstep can include, if desired, an assessment regarding theappropriateness of making such a switch. This assessment can be basedupon whatever criteria may be important and/or relevant to a givenapplication setting and can include, for example, basing such an actionupon the contents of the aforementioned received information, otherreceived information as may be relevant, and information possessed bythe device itself, to note but a few illustrative examples in thisregard.

If desired, these teachings will also optionally accommodate monitoring104 for passive transmissions from other devices, which transmissionscomprise human communication interface control instructions. Theseinstructions can relate, for example, to volume settings, playbacktransport settings (as relate, for example, to a play mode of operation,a stop or pause mode of operation, a fast forward or fast reverse modeof operation, and so forth), display settings (as relate, for example,to color or monochromatic presentation, resolution, aspect ratio,contrast, brightness, and so forth), media selection settings (asrelate, for example, to channel selections, track selections,shuffle/sequential play selections, subtitling selections, and soforth), and formatting control information (as relate, for example, toscrolling, panning, zooming, fading, balancing, and so forth), to notebut a few illustrative examples.

By this approach, the content rendering as carried out by the device(either itself or via one or more surrogate rendering platforms as perthe teachings set forth herein) can be informed, influenced, and/orcontrolled by externally sourced passive transmissions in this regard.So configured, for example, a present volume level for playback of audiocontent can be automatically lowered, if desired, upon entering afacility where such a practice is encouraged and/or required (presuming,of course, that this facility makes provision for the passivetransmission noted above).

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the above-describedprocesses are readily enabled using any of a wide variety of availableand/or readily configured platforms, including partially or whollyprogrammable platforms as are known in the art or dedicated purposeplatforms as may be desired for some applications. Referring now to FIG.2, an illustrative approach to such a platform will now be provided.

In this illustrative embodiment, the apparatus 200 may comprise a deviceas described or suggested above. This apparatus 200 may comprise arendering processor 201 that uses human communication content 202 ofchoice and effects the rendering of that content 202 via an availablehuman communication interface 203. Each of these various elements may beas described above if desired. This apparatus 200 also comprises atransmitter 204 that is configured and arranged to passively wirelesslytransmit the aforementioned information regarding the capability of theapparatus 200 to effect wireless transmission of the human communicationcontent.

This transmitter 204 may use any transmitter technology of choice withBluetooth-based technology being one presently available logical choicein this regard. This transmitter 204 can be of sufficient design andpower to achieve whatever effective coverage range may be judged usefulin a given application setting. In general, however, this transmitter204 will probably suffice as a relatively short-range platform. Again,Bluetooth-based technology will probably serve well in this regard.

This apparatus 200 may further comprise a receiver 206 (which may alsocomprise any receiver of choice including, but not limited to, aBluetooth receiver) that is configured and arranged to receiveinformation from another device (or devices) 205 regarding theirexisting capability to also render the human communication content asper these teachings. This receiver 206, in turn, may operably couple toa switching processor 207 that operably couples to the renderingprocessor 201 and that is configured and arranged to selectively switchpresent rendering of the human communication content 202 from thepresent apparatus 200 to one or more of the other devices 205.

So configured, these elements (and particularly the rendering processor201 and the switching processor 207) can be configured and arranged(via, for example, appropriate programming as will be well understood bythose skilled in the art) to comport with selected elements of theteachings set forth herein. This, in turn, will permit this apparatus200 to determine when another device is available to effect presentrendering of human communication content that is being presentlyrendered using native capabilities of the apparatus 200 itself and toeffect selective switching of such rendering to the other device whenand as appropriate.

This apparatus 200 may further optionally comprise, if desired, amonitoring processor 208 that operably couples to the receiver 206 andto the human communication interface 203 (and/or the rendering processor201). This monitoring processor 208 can then be configured and arrangedto facilitate the teachings set forth above regarding controlling therendering process in response to received human communication interfacecontrol instructions as are received via the receiver 206.

Those skilled in the art will recognize and understand that such anapparatus 200 may be comprised of a plurality of physically distinctelements as is suggested by the illustration shown in FIG. 2. It is alsopossible, however, to view this illustration as comprising a logicalview, in which case one or more of these elements can be enabled andrealized via a shared platform. It will also be understood that such ashared platform may comprise a wholly or at least partially programmableplatform as are known in the art.

So configured, any number of operational scenarios that benefit theuser, the device, or both are readily accomplished. Rendering activitycan be switched, or retained, based upon any criteria of interestincluding but not limited to user preferences, local venue preferencesor requirements, legal stipulations, available rendering capabilities,linking channel conditions, and so forth. This, in turn, cansignificantly increase a user's satisfaction with respect to therendered result. Those skilled in the art will recognize that thisprocess can be realized in as transparent or non-transparent a mode asmay be desired.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that a wide variety ofmodifications, alterations, and combinations can be made with respect tothe above described embodiments without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention, and that such modifications, alterations, andcombinations are to be viewed as being within the ambit of the inventiveconcept. As one example in this regard, these teachings might beemployed to facilitate switching only a portion of the present renderingactivity. This approach might be used, for example, when a presentdevice is rendering a stereo audio track using only a native monauralcapability. In such a case, the present device might switch, forexample, left channel information to another available monaural devicewhile itself switching to present rendering of only the right channelinformation. By this approach, two monaural platforms would work intandem to render audio content in stereophonic form.

1. A method comprising: at a first device having a human communicationinterface: providing human communication content; presently renderingthe human communication content using the human communication interface;while rendering the human communication content, passively wirelesslytransmitting information regarding an existing first device capabilityregarding wirelessly transmitting the human communication content;receiving, in response to passively wirelessly transmitting theinformation, information regarding an existing second device capabilityto render the human communication content; switching present renderingof the human communication content from the first device to the seconddevice.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first device comprises atleast one of: a two-way wireless audio communications device; a two-waywireless data communications device; an audio playback device; a videoplayback device; an audio/visual playback device; a computing platform.3. The method of claim 1 wherein the human communication interfacecomprises at least one of: a display; an audio transducer; a tactileinput device; a pointing device; an audio input device.
 4. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the human communication content comprises at least oneof: audio content; video content; audio/visual content; at least one ofuser action and selection events; at least one of textual, auditory, andgestural user input.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein presentlyrendering the human communication content using the human communicationinterface comprises causing the human communication content to bediscernable to a human via at least one human sense of perception. 6.The method of claim 1 wherein passively wirelessly transmittinginformation regarding an existing first device capability regardingwirelessly transmitting the human communication content comprisespassively wirelessly transmitting the information on a substantiallyperiodic basis.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the informationregarding an existing first device capability comprises, at least inpart, at least one of: metadata regarding the human communicationcontent; metadata regarding the first device; metadata regarding thesecond device.
 8. The method of claim 1 further comprising: at the firstdevice: monitoring for passive transmissions from other devicescomprising human communication interface control instructions.
 9. Themethod of claim 8 wherein the human communication interface controlinstructions comprise, at least in part, at least one controlinstruction regarding: volume settings; playback transport settings;display settings; media selection settings; formatting controlinformation
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving informationregarding an existing second device capability to render the humancommunication content further comprises determining whether the seconddevice is authorized to render the human communication content.
 11. Anapparatus comprising: a human communication interface; humancommunication content; a rendering processor operably coupled to thehuman communication content and the human communication interface andbeing configured and arranged to provide the human communication contentto the human communication interface to thereby facilitatehuman-discernable rendering of the human communication content; atransmitter configured and arranged to passively wirelessly transmitinformation, during the rendering of the human communication content,regarding an existing apparatus capability regarding wirelesstransmission of the human communication content; a receiver configuredand arranged to receive information regarding an existing other devicecapability to also render the human communication content; a switchingprocessor operably coupled to the receiver and the rendering processorto switch the rendering of the human communication content from theapparatus to the other device.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein theapparatus comprises at least one of: a two-way wireless audiocommunications device; a two-way wireless data communications device; anaudio playback device; a video playback device; an audio/visual playbackdevice; a computing platform.
 13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein thehuman communication interface comprises at least one of: a display; anaudio transducer; a tactile input device; a pointing device; an audioinput device.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the humancommunication content comprises at least one of: audio content; videocontent; audio/visual content; at least one of user action and selectionevents; at least one of textual, auditory, and gestural user input. 15.The apparatus of claim 11 wherein facilitating human-discernablerendering of the human communication content comprises causing the humancommunication content to be discernable to a human via at least onehuman sense of perception.
 16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein thetransmitter is further configured and arranged to passively wirelesslytransmit the information on a substantially periodic basis.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 11 wherein the information regarding an existingapparatus capability comprises, at least in part, at least one of:metadata regarding the human communication content; metadata regardingthe apparatus; metadata regarding the other device.
 18. The apparatus ofclaim 1 further comprising: a monitoring processor that is operablycoupled to the receiver and that is configured and arranged to monitorfor passive transmissions from other devices comprising humancommunication interface control instructions.
 19. The apparatus of claim18 wherein the human communication interface control instructionscomprise, at least in part, at least one control instruction regarding:volume settings; playback transport settings; display settings; mediaselection settings; formatting control information
 20. The apparatus ofclaim 18 wherein the monitoring processor is operably coupled to thehuman communication interface to thereby facilitate control of the humancommunication interface in response to the human communication interfacecontrol instructions.